They actually don't have a bunch of spare cores, there is only B1046, B1048, B1049, B1051 and B1056. B1056 is a NASA CRS booster, B1046/B1048 one of them will be destroyed on IFA leaving just three boosters they can use until DM-2 brings in B1058 into circulation and B1060 comes online for USCV-1. The only other option is B1042 but she got pretty damaged on KoreaSat 5A, and even if B1050 makes a miraculous return to flight they are still a little short on boosters which makes 4 Starlink flights this year unlikely

I think they mean the fact that Starlink isn’t very time sensitive and the rocket will be ready to launch something. If you suddenly have a satellite you want to launch, they can bump the Starlink satellites and launch yours instead.

No, they have a launch on the docket. They don't care what goes to space on it. They have an 'infinite' backlog of StarLink launches that they can launch but if a paying customer comes along and says 'I want to go to space in 3 weeks' they could do it. Assuming you could get through integration in that time frame.

Basically the difference between chartering a plane and buying a plane ticket. One the plane is going because you paid for it to go, the other it was going anyways and you just happened to pay to be in the seat.

Here a animation of the satellites. Still the old configuration but the basic principle is the same. If all satellites were in one plane they would form one rotating ring around the Earth and would cover only a small part of the surface at any given time. Distributed over several planes there are many rings, in total covering the whole of Earth, as far as the inclination reaches.

Hell, just 7 years ago or so I had almost lost hope in the future of advanced space travel. If you asked me 7 years ago when I think humans will start colonizing Mars, I would've said like 2130; now I would say 2030. Shit's insane. The rate of development and growing interest within the last 4 years has been truly awe inspiring.

I think it's mostly the contrast with some other space ventures, which have had very big promises and instead completely imploded. There are also a few that have similarly had a lot of NASA funding and not moved the needle as much. But yea, I mean, their goals were never unbelievable, just fiendishly difficult for most mere mortals.

PARIS — SpaceX hopes to launch 24 Starlink missions in 2020 as the company builds out a broadband megaconstellation that could ultimately number close to 12,000 satellites, a company executive said Sept. 10.

SpaceX’s Starlink launch cadence will likely average “two a month,” in addition to customer launches, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, said at the World Satellite Business Week conference here.

“Next year I hope we launch 24 Starlinks,” Shotwell said.

Shotwell said SpaceX may launch more Starlink missions this year, but the final number will depend on customer missions. SpaceX will prioritize launching customers before its own broadband satellites, she said.

“If some customers move out, I’ll have some Starlink launches — maybe up to four Starlink launches this year — but we won’t push a customer out for that, so we will wait and see what the end of the year looks like and see what we can fit in.”

Shotwell didn’t specify if Starlink missions will be solely on Falcon 9s or if they will also include Falcon Heavy launches.

Close to a order of magnitude more.... Starship (is quite difficult itself but when finished) trivializes a lot of things comparative to our current expectations even for SpaceX. IIRC it can fill a plane even WRT the final build-out numbers.

It says she is hoping 24 next year. Does not mean it will happen.
On another note, even if they do all that what about the people on the ground trying to receive the signal? Where is the receiving hardware for the end user? Who will manufacture and deliver it to the customers?

Right now the focus seems to be less on consumer sales and more serving as a backbone to major carriers and broadband providers, specifically targeting rural areas that lack high speed backbone lines. This greatly reduces the need for a large volume of receivers. Long run they probably offer some direct to consumer hardware, in the short run this is probably easier, faster to deploy, and still very profitable.

Well they're building the Starlink satellites there right? They need to build 5000+ of those so I imagine they need space for a assembly line for Satellites.

With Starlink Receivers we are talking about 10s of millions of units, priced at a level that a consumer can afford. That kind of manufacturing isn't done in the US anymore. No it's not just wage issues, its more that the supply chains don't exist to be able to deliver the volume needed. Go to Shenzen and all the supply chains you need are right there and they are capable of ramping up to millions of units very quickly.